Text/catran
In June 2018, China Ceramics Network’s first stop for terminal market research: Hangzhou. Through in-depth local research, China Ceramics Network obtained the following information:
1. About the positioning of local stores
Some of the ceramic tile home building materials stores in Hangzhou have successfully completed transformation and upgrading from low-end to high-end, such as Evergrande Building Materials Market; although some have been rumored to be demolished several times, they still rely on their years of accumulated history. The foundation has survived tenaciously, such as the ceramics market; some are positioned as the most high-end local home furnishing stores in Hangzhou, such as New Era Home Furnishings; and others focus on occupying the minds of customers from the perspective of space creative design, such as Six Dimensions Space, etc.
2. About product (category & specification) trends
The 800×800mm specification still dominates the market in terms of volume, but the 600×1200mm specification is being accepted and used by more and more people. As for 900×1800mm and the newly popular 750×1500mm, Hangzhou is still a trending product that is favored by some dealers and has not yet been launched in the market in a real sense. In addition, due to the continuous advancement of Jianyi marble tiles, some of its original size specifications, such as 810×1620mm, are also promoted in the Hangzhou market; and ceramic large slabs launched by Nobel as the main force, such as 1600×4800mm, Specifications such as 2400×4800mm and 1200×2400mm also lead the mainstream specifications of large boards in the Hangzhou market.
3. Regarding the role of third-party assembly companies
As for the packaging channel, Hangzhou people call packaging companies "all-inclusive companies". According to He Yong, the relevant person in charge of Nobel, Shengdu Decoration, a well-known local decoration company in Hangzhou, had a turnover of 1.2 billion last year. Calculated based on the ceramic tiles accounting for 8% of the total decoration, this decoration company alone The sales volume of the decoration company channel is about 96 million! Therefore, in Hangzhou, decoration companies must not be underestimated.
Related information on Hangzhou ceramic tile and sanitary ware market in 2018
This information provides valuable reference for China Ceramics Network’s subsequent terminal market research (as of December 2019) and terminal empowerment of some brands.
Visit again,
HangzhouHow is the state?
On August 31, 2020, the 10th China Real Estate and Pan-Home Industry Cross-border Summit and the 2020 "Building Hygiene" were hosted by the China Building Decoration Association and hosted by the China Ceramics Network with the theme of "New Blue Ocean, Big Brands" The "Top Ten Ceramic Brands List" award ceremony was held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the preliminary preparations for this event, the author once again visited the ceramic tile bathroom market in Hangzhou.
Zhejiang Siwei Sanitary Ware & Wanda Xichuang Headquarters visited by China Ceramics Network
On August 26, I visited the Zhejiang general agent of Siwei Sanitary Ware in Xiaoshan District, and visited the Wanda Xtron headquarters in Shaoxing (including the slate processing production line and slate home exhibition hall); on August 28, I visited New Era Home Furnishing Plaza, Red Star Macalline Home Furnishing (Gudun Store), Chengbei Business Park, Zijin Baiyi Home Furnishing Mall, Ouya Datianyi Home Furnishings in the West Lake District, and the Sixth Space Building Materials Museum in Binjiang District, interviewed local channel dealers 5+ People: Xu Gonghe, general agent of Siwei Bathroom in Zhejiang, Tan Kai, sales general manager of Wanda Xtron Bathroom Slabs, Liu Ning, vice president of investment promotion of Red Star Macalline Zhejiang, Chen Zhongquan, manager of Jianyi Marble Tile Hangzhou New Era, ICC Tile Hangzhou dealer representative Zhou Xiaofei......
Jianyi Marble Ceramics Hangzhou New Era Store Team&ICC Ceramics Hangzhou New Era Store Team
Two years ago, a local ceramic tile channel dealer said in an exchange with the author, "Hangzhou's economic development has gone through three stages of upgrades in recent years, from the aura of a tourist city in West Lake District to the aura of Alibaba's Internet , and then to the current halo effect of Liangzhu culture". It can be seen that Hangzhou is still developing rapidly. As the capital city of Zhejiang Province, the vitality and stamina of its ceramic tile and sanitary ware terminal market are at the forefront of the Pearl River Delta, keeping pace with Shanghai and southern Jiangsu.
Building materials and home furnishing stores are still prosperous and active,
Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
In recent years, Hangzhou's building materials market has remained prosperous and active, even though the proportion of finely decorated houses in real estate projects has been extremely high. Mainly reflected in the following two aspects:
First, the number of local stores continues to grow. The most active one is in the Xihu District of Hangzhou, with nearly five large and small home building materials stores. Next to the New Era Home Plaza (No. 808) on the same street is the Red Star Macalline (No. 888), which has been under construction for two years. It is said that Affected by the epidemic, the opening in October 2020 has been postponed to early 2021.
Secondly, the rents of major shopping malls remain high. The average price is basically 100 yuan/㎡/month. Even the rent in the main aisle of Hangzhou’s oldest urban store, Jiahaojiaju Decoration Mall, is 120 yuan/㎡/month. It is understood that a certain ceramic tile brand used to have a store area of 600 square meters in the store, and the store rent plus advertising fee was 600,000 yuan/year. After comprehensive consideration of costs, it has withdrawn this year; and New Era Home Plaza has the highest rent. It is basically 220-260 yuan/㎡/month. It is reported that "No. 888" on the same street will have the advantage of reducing the rent by one-third compared to "No. 808" to attract many building materials merchants to settle in. A staff from the headquarters of a ceramic tile brand told The author said, "Many big brands have switched to the new Red Star Macalline store because of this."
The six major stores in Hangzhou visited by China Ceramics Network
Of course, the most representative stores in Hangzhou today are still the New Era Home Furnishing Plaza (for high-end channels and some retail) and the Sixth Space Building Materials and Home Furnishing Museum (fully high-end channels); and similarlyIt is Eurasia Tianyi Furniture located in the West Lake District. Even though the ceramic tile pavilion is on the fifth floor, it has attracted many ceramic tile brands, such as Monte Carlo Ceramics, Xinzhongyuan Ceramics, Romario Ceramics, Nobel Ceramics, etc., as well as New stores of Xinghui Ceramics, Shunhui Ceramics, Ouwenlai Ceramics and other brands are being renovated. On the same floor, there is also a decoration company with the ability to undertake projects - Shedu Fine Decoration Engineering.
However, as mentioned above, Evergrande Building Materials, which will be transformed and upgraded in 2018, according to local ceramic tile and sanitary ware channel dealers, “all ceramic tile brands have almost withdrawn”; similar to its fate, there is also Jiahaojiaju Decoration Mall. It is reported that the ceramic tile brand stores that were evacuated at the end of 2019 include Bode Seiko, Xinzhongyuan Ceramics, Asia Ceramics, and ICC Ceramics. Nobel Ceramics has also shrunk from the original 700㎡ store to 100㎡. Another Hangzhou ceramic tile market, which has been in trouble for many years and is about to be demolished, seems to have escaped bad luck and is leaning quietly next to the Yuhuang Mountain Scenic Area. There is no sign of being demolished, but because there are many "wholesale markets" inside Channel-oriented miscellaneous brands”, so even if multiple ceramic tile brand headquarters such as Dongjian City Headquarters and Jinsi Yuma Ceramics Hangzhou Headquarters are located here, they cannot escape the “fate” of being called the low-end market by their peers.
Slate, live broadcast, game change...
How can the brand headquarters keep up if they don’t understand?
In addition to the visible market changes, the author also learned the following trends in ceramic tile bathrooms through the information disclosed by the interviewees.
1/Stone slabs catch up with imported ceramic tiles and marble tiles market
“I’m not panic at all about imported bricks.”
“The last decade was the era of full polished glaze, and the next decade is the era of slate.”
……
These classic statements all come from the "opening remarks" made by Hangzhou ceramic tile distributors when evaluating slate slabs. It is reported that Wanda Xichuang has 10 slate processing production lines, which can produce 50 all-rock one-piece basins and 1,000 all-rock countertops a day. "But we dare not accept any more orders, mainly because of the shortage of labor, and our masters are also closely watched by other processing plants." Tan Kai, general manager of Wanda Xtron bathroom slate sales general manager, said. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the popularity of slate in the terminal market. A salesperson at the headquarters of a ceramic tile brand told the author that many dealers in second- and third-tier cities are now forcing the brand headquarters to promote slate.
On one side is the hot scene of rock slabs, on the other side isOther building materials categories are facing dire straits. “The price of slate is still higher than that of marble and ceramic tiles, but for high-income people, they will choose slate indifferently,” said a Hangzhou dealer representative of a marble tile brand. “The group we are facing is originally For high-end consumer groups, the emergence of slate has indeed had a certain impact on our sales. ”
Imported ceramic tile brand stores in the new era & sixth space (part)
There is another situation where domestic slate has had an impact on imported ceramic tiles and imported slate. "Imported bricks just have better designs and colors. Since the advent of large slabs in China, the advantages of imported bricks have begun to decline. In the future, imported slates will be more difficult to make. First of all, domestic slate technology is improving, and the price/performance ratio is relatively better. High, the important thing is that slate needs more services, whether in terms of processing, transportation, post-service, or that domestic brands can set up central warehouses in local areas. Domestic slate will definitely have a certain impact on imported ceramic tiles and imported slate. . At present, the best brand of foreign slate is Desais, but its price is as high as 3,000-5,000 yuan/㎡, while the price of domestic slate has dropped to a few hundred yuan. Even Delifeng, which is recognized by the terminal as the most famous domestic slate, It’s only between 1,000-2,000 yuan/㎡,” said a ceramic tile channel dealer.
2/Terminal live broadcast is to accurately attract dealers
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the nationwide live streaming model has emerged. We often see on some live broadcast platforms that terminal tile and bathroom dealers are also engaging in live broadcast sales. Regarding the live broadcast of terminal agents, Xu Gonghe, the Zhejiang general agent of Siwei Sanitary Ware, can see it more clearly than anyone else.
Xu Gonghe believes that "it won't work if you don't put some thought into playing tricks." Therefore, he is not only more "down-to-earth" than the headquarters in using various marketing models suitable for the current situation, but as a general agent, he is also Continuously take the lead in leading a group of distributors to do live broadcasts. "Local dealers of brands will do some live broadcast activities on their own, as long as the brand headquarters gives out product price benefits. But the terminal managerThe live broadcast of sellers is different from the live broadcast of general Internet celebrities carrying goods. It mainly plays the role of attracting traffic. The customers guided to the store by the live broadcast will be prospective customers. "It can be seen that there is a difference between dealers' live broadcasts and general brand headquarters' live broadcasts of goods.
3/Retail Market × Bureau Reform × Light Intelligence
As we all know, almost 100% of the real estate in Hangzhou is fully decorated. "But mid- to high-end groups will consider re-decoration or 'bureau reform' if they are dissatisfied with the fine decoration." said Chen Zhongquan, Hangzhou New Era Manager of Jianyi Marble Tile. Xu Gonghe also revealed a similar situation: In Hangzhou, most of the customers who come to the door through live broadcast are for partial renovation and renovation of old houses. These customers only need partial renovation, so most home decoration companies in Hangzhou have "Bureau Reform" service items.
“The sales volume of sanitary ware products driven by the 'bureau reform' is not large, but there is still a certain market. For example, consumers who have used smart toilets in their homes will definitely buy smart toilets again during partial renovations. ” Xu Gonghe analyzed, “In Hangzhou, every room with two bathrooms must have a smart toilet installed in one bathroom, and smart toilets are also quite cheap now (except for smart toilets that do not have an automatic flip function and have other functions) , its promotional price can be reduced to 2,999 yuan/piece, and includes delivery and installation services), which has a great impact on ordinary toilets. 'Light smart' (covering heating and flushing functions) is very popular. There is a trend to replace ordinary toilets."
……
What is the trend of the ceramic tile bathroom market? This is not only a sentence often asked by terminal channel dealers, but also a question that some brand headquarters personnel constantly ask people on the front line. I wonder if the above terminal market information from Hangzhou can bring reference value to ceramic people?
China Ceramics Network, which shoulders the mission and responsibility of industry media, will conduct end-market research to the end. The upgraded version of the terminal market research of China Ceramics Network - the national ceramic tile bathroom market survey will start in mid-to-late September, so stay tuned!
Author: Maoran
